A Life of Pain or Purpose

Thank you, Mr. Beatty, for leading us in a beautiful hymn. Looking at that, looking at the page of the verse above and what's described and all the different things, we have a beautiful and wonderful hymnal that ties it all together. When you open up the Bible for inspiration, one doesn't normally turn to 1 Chronicles. Romans? Yes! Philippians? Yes! Other books of the Bible? Yes! But 1 Chronicles? Well, basically because much of 1 Chronicles is about as exciting as an almanac. But even an almanac has colorful maps and pictures. At least, mine does. I might suggest that some of us have what you might call avoidance issues with a book that goes through many a chapter with the most exciting words being begot, bore, and from as its main action words. For a moment, let's take a sample of that, if you would. Come with me. Let's open up 1 Chronicles. Those that have avoidance issues, get ready. We're going in. We're going into 1 Chronicles. Let's take a peek at chapter 4, just to get a sample of what I'm talking about here.

1 Chronicles 4. Let's pick up the thought in verse 6, just to kind of put a toothpick in there and get a feel of what's going on here. 1 Ne'arra bore him ahuzam heifer. You ever been called a heifer? Timani and Ha-Ha-Ha-Shtari. These were the sons of Ne'arra. The sons of Hela were Xerath, Zohar, and Ethnam. 2 Coz, Be-got-eh-nub, Sobih-pah, and the families of Ahar-el, the son of Har-um.

Now, if you don't like the way I pronounce those, you try it on stage in front of all these people.

Those names are a mouthful. And when you think of 1 Chronicles, that's the first three chapters like that. We're in the chapter, and there's six to go, just to deal with what we call the names. And yet, here's what I want to share with you today, friends. All Scripture is given for our prophet. And the verses in Chronicles are just as important as the red letter words that you find in the Gospels, denoting Jesus' words. So you might say, what gives? And what might we spiritually gain out of the book of 1 Chronicles? Well, let's go just one verse further and notice. And we're going to discover a really precious jewel in the midst of all of these begots, boars, and frongs in what otherwise would appear simply as, you might call it, Holy TDM, as we go through the book of Chronicles. Now, as we do, I want to share something with you. Unlike the Greek tongue, the Hebrew tongue is compact. It is precise. And so we're going to look at verse 9. We're also going to look at verse 10. And we need to just kind of read it slowly and let it sink in. Now, Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bore him in pain. And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, and that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain. So God granted him what he had requested. In this little section in between all the begots, the boars, and the frums, we come up to something really neat, really special. It's the epitaph of one man in 12 lines with four specific requests and major lessons that come down to our day. And you don't find all those other little words along the way. But that's all right, because actually the begots, the boars, and the frums that I've kind of humorously made fun of, they also have a purpose and a part of the divine plan that I'll bring out in just a little while. Now, it's very interesting that all of a sudden we open up to this treasure trove, as it were, in the midst of this list. And it's very interesting what J. Oswald Sanders says in his book, A Spiritual Clinic. Oswald states this, When God troubles to preserve the epitaph of one man out of millions and gives it such a concise and meaningful language, we can be certain that it will repay detailed study.

So let's take up Mr. Sanders on this challenge. And what I'd like to do in this message, friends, is offer a detailed study of these few lines found in the book of 1 Chronicles. Some of us may be aware that books have been written regarding J. Bez. There was one that was out about 10 years ago.

I believe it was called The Prayer of J. Bez. I've never personally read that. It was by Bruce Wilkinson. It was a very popular book, sold a lot of books, hopefully helped a lot of people. But what we're going to do today, this afternoon, we're going to do our own detective work as we ask where, who, what, when, why, and how.

We have this epitaph stuck in 1 Chronicles. Now, as we go deeper, let's share a thought here. We're going to be dealing with some information. But remember, what we want to do is not only state information. Hopefully, the information will inspire us.

But I do believe that this section of Scripture is planted in here, friends, to help you and I move from inspiration to transformation and to change our lives and make our coming days, our coming weeks, different. Not just simply for us, but that's so we can glorify God. So we're going to go deeper. And I'd like to give you a title to this message. Some people like titles, and it's simply this. Pain or Purpose?

Pain or Purpose? What will it be? First of all, let's understand why 1 Chronicles is written. It is specifically written to show God's elective and preserving grace to a covenant people. That is going to be extremely important. In the study of Jabez, it must be coupled with the word covenant. If you don't understand the importance of covenant, we will not understand the tremendous impact of what is being said in these 12 lines with these four requests in the prayer of Jabez.

What Chronicles did again is it shows God's elective. That means he elected. He chose a person or people and went into covenant relationship with them. Not only the choosing, but the preserving of that relationship. Not only for a day, not only for a year, but for millennia. The long list of names is designed to point towards, to center upon, and to move from a covenant that God made with King David.

It shows that God was true to his word. It shows what he was doing with this Messianic type of king and how important that was. That is the PowerPoint of what the book of Chronicles is about. Again, the genealogies give reference as to how David and, yes, Judah were chosen by divine selection. So as we move through all those begots and bores and froms, it is for a purpose. It is not to hypnotize you into holy tedium, into a hypnotic state of list. But it is to validate that the God who is yesterday, today, and forever, when he says that he's going to do something, is going to bring it about.

Again, the underlying framework of the topic of Jabez has got to be built upon covenant. It is the underlying of everything that we're going to talk about. The aspect of covenant is also going to tie us as the new covenant reader with this man of the old covenant. Let's understand something. Let's make no mistake. Are you with me? Jabez was of the old covenant. We are under the new covenant. But just the reality of covenant ties us together.

Because, again, we're dealing with the same God that desires our engagement into the covenant invitation. That's how you have to think about Jabez. It's engagement, and it's activity, and it's desire to go deeper into the covenant that God has allowed us to be a part of. Now, when we talk about covenant, let's understand something here for a moment.

Hello to the Jones. Come on in. Somebody will help you find a seat. We had the Jones and Bakersfield for five years, and look, they survived. They're still in the church. Hey, come on in. We're glad to have you. Welcome down from the Garden Spot. Let's remember for a moment how God made a covenant with Abraham regarding his descendants and how they would inhabit the land. The Abrahamic covenant had promises and had provisions and targets, and that covenant talked about inhabiting the land.

Later on, he would talk to the children of Israel, through Moses, and through Aaron, and he told them as they came up out of the land of Egypt, that he would indeed give them a land of milk and honey, hearkening back to the covenant that he had initially made with Abraham. Now, but why, and for what purpose? Why would God make a covenant with these people? Why would he focus on land? Join me if you would for a moment and come with me to Deuteronomy 28. Deuteronomy 28.

And let's take a focus of verse 1. Was it just simply a real estate deal so that their boom could go bust, just like what we've experienced here in Southern California? Is that why God pointed them to the land, or is there a greater transcendent reason? Verse 1, And notice, Imagine, God said that if you will keep my commandments, I will bless you. In fact, you can't run away from them. They will overtake you. My blessings are speechters. They'll catch up with you. Then let's drop down to verse 9.

And then all the people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the Brutus of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you.

And the Lord will give you the good treasure. It all goes back to not the land, but to the one that gave them the land. It was to glorify God, to magnify Him. That was the purpose. The covenant of old with these people planted in the way of the sea was to actually reveal God before all humanity. And when you think about that for a moment, what a rich covenant!

What an incredible opportunity! His desire for all of His covenant people is to enjoy abundance. To enjoy abundance. But as you see, walking in my ways, but not at the expense of holiness. And there comes the rub. God wants us to have good things. God wants us to have the rich things of life. And I'm not just even speaking about materially. But they can't come at the expense of our holiness before Him. Why does God want to give us good things? Why does He want us to have a stake in the covenant?

Well, number one, here's one for those that want to take a listen. Number one, because He loves us. Number two, imagine we worship a God that when we are having good things down here, it pleases Him. It brings Him pleasure. And number three, most importantly, it brings Him glory. So here Israel entered a covenant with a deity, with the God of gods, the one God, who would love them, who by them obeying Him and receiving good things would give Him pleasure and glorify Him at the same time.

As we say, such a deal. What a covenant. What a compact. But Israel and Judah forgot the whys of what God had done for them, and they settled just simply on the whats. And we know the rest of the story historically. God raised up Assyria. Later on, He would raise up Babylon to punish them, which now brings us to Chronicles, and we're just about to get into JBZ, which now brings us to understanding why Chronicles and why JBZ. Again, we must understand covenant. To not understand that, you will not be able to understand JBZ.

You will not understand Chronicles. Chronicles is written about 430 B.C. give or take a day or month. Traditionally, it is written by Ezra during what we call the post-captivity period. The Jews have now returned from Babylon to Jerusalem. It's a time in which people are now re-entering or entering the land once again. There is an entering, and they are struggling with the identity issues. They have identity issues. They've been away from the land.

They've been away from God. They have been in pain. They have been in struggle. And they don't necessarily know that God wants to bless them, because they understand that their own lives have basically come down to nothing.

Their nation became extinct. With that thought of the Covenant people now re-entering the land that had once been promised, having identity issues, we now begin to understand where JBZ comes in. Here is a man who lived around the time of Joshua, perhaps 1,200 years before this time. Probably near the time of the conquest of Canaan. We don't know a lot, but we can for a moment speculate. Scripture is silent. We want to be careful about that. But based upon what we do read, we get an inkling that it's conceivable that it came from a family of little standing, little influence, and probably little physical wealth.

Now, as we go back to 1 Chronicles, if you'll join there, because I'm over here somewhere else right now, in 1 Chronicles 4, let's pick up a thought here. The first thing that is mentioned in 1 Chronicles 4, 9 is very interesting. It says, now JBZ was more honorable than his brothers. Now, what is very interesting, you've got to kind of think of this as an epitaph. You know, sometimes you'll go through a graveyard, you go through a cemetery, it gives you the date of birth, the date of death, and that's it. You don't really know what the hyphen is talking about.

But here we have some detail about this man. It's as if, 1200 years down the line, there's something being said about him. Sometimes you can look at a tree, and you can say, you know, I think the tree is that tall, but you're not sure, because you've not been at the top of the tree.

Remember what we talked about last week? But the tree has now fallen many years ago, so you can take the full measure of the man. And thus the measure is given of the man that he was more honorable than all of his brothers. Interesting. The power of this abrupt statement comes off of the begots, the frums, and the boars. And it is to remind people that it is not where you start, but how, where, and with whom you wind up that is important.

That is what the story of JBES is about. It's not about how life started for you, but where you can wind up when your focus is correct, and you understand the covenant relationship, you engage in it, and you ask God to be your partner. Now, this becomes all the more clear as we go through this and we see what the man's name was. It was JBES. Notice the next part. And his mother called his name JBES, saying, because I bore him in pain.

Now, it's very interesting. All of us here say JBES, so we're not going to change it. But if you actually went to the Hebrew and you tried to sound it out like the Hebrew, it would be like this, YAH BATES. But if you say YAH BATES to somebody, they're not going to know who you're going to talk about. So we're just going to call them who? We're going to call them JBES. But the term there clearly means pain, describing his birth, describing his start. In fact, the positioning of the Hebrew words when you get intricately and delicately into it, it actually comes implied as a form of almost a punish, like a pun, retort.

So basically what is being said here about, and I named him JBES, which actually means, I don't prefer pain, thanks. That's basically what his mother said as he came out and breathed his first bit of life. Now, why is he given this name? I don't know and you don't know, but let's just have a little speculation for a moment. We're not sure. But obviously pain was involved. Could have been emotional distress. It could have been a painful delivery. She could have been a widow, perhaps from conception until now.

The husband had died. We don't know. Maybe she was a single mother, either through death or maybe at that time, when the land was being conquered by Joshua people, that he was off to war. We simply don't know. But here's something that we want to think about for a moment and consider in converse or in contrast. Some people, some children, are given pleasant names like Faith, Hope, Charity, Joy, Robert... No, just teasing. Just teasing.

But just imagine being called a pain every day of your given life. Pain! Get over there! Get over here! Come here, pain! You're a pain!

And all of his life, he went by the name of pain.

Perhaps some of us can relate with JVES. Tough start out of the blocks. Never feeling wanted. Never feeling connected. Never seeming able to move from the burden of our past or perhaps what we did in another year or another decade or... Our parents come back and remind us again and again of perhaps something that maybe we did early on in our life. And they may not call us pain, but they're no stranger to relating to us the pain that we have been in their existence.

Welcome to JVES. Welcome to the story of perhaps our lives. Seemingly, JVES was born into a humble family, perhaps humiliating circumstances regarding the name. And he was given a name that he would never forget. And yet, what God says is his name is more honorable than all of those around him.

Start it with JVES, but then it said that his name is he was more honorable than all of his brethren. The term honorable is taken from the Hebrew and it literally means weighty, weighty, or impressive, or noteworthy. It's the phrase which you've used. Your weight, but is it your worth? Is its weight in gold? In other words, gold and weight have a similarity. What's really neat, if you just keep your finger, if you'll do that for me, and let's just go to the very end of 1 Chronicles. 1 Chronicles 29. I want to show you something about this guy that was a pain. And then you go, remember, the Chronicles is basically about centering on King David as a messianic king. And then if you'll join me, look at verse 28. So he died, speaking of David, in a good old age, full of days, and riches, and notice, and honor. And then Solomon reigned in his place. Here's the guy from nowhere, the guy with the bad start, who had the same adjective attached to him as King David. And that he had honor, and he was more honorable than all of his brethren. Not bad linkage for a guy named Pain. But now, let's go beyond just simply information. Let's start moving into transformation. How did J. Baz make such a transition in his life? And that's what we're talking about. A transition for a transformative life. A life that moves simply from information to the spark of inspiration to transformation. I think we'll find that, as we go to 1 Chronicles 4-9, we'll find that it comes about by a bold end. And by an honest prayer that God chose to honor. And when we first read the prayer, you go, oh man, did this guy say that? Fairly ambitious. But why? Let's find out as we go through the 4 specific requests. J.Me and 1 Chronicles 4 and verse 10. Let's notice what he first asked for. Who? The guy. The guy. Named Payne.

Here we go. The first thing that he said is out of the blocks, Oh, that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory.

It's interesting. Oh, that you would bless me. Let's actually just start with, oh, that you would bless me. That's the first one. Oh, that you would bless me. Now, we have to understand this, not in the 21st century modern mind, but what it meant to the Hebraic Covenant community. A blessing was, oh my, so significant. Join me if you would for a moment in number 6. And we've given messages on this before, but some of you weren't here. Let's go to number 6, where we see when God just loves to bless us, and he wants his servants to bless us. And so he said that when it comes to blessing, this is what you will say. Verse 24, The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. And the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. We realize also in Deuteronomy 8, we often call that what? The chapter of blessings and cursings. Blessings and cursings were directly tied to the covenant relationship. And when you get the just, when we go back here to 1 Chronicles 4, verse 9, 10, when you get the just, what Jabiz, when you get deeper into the Hebrew, what Jabiz is actually saying is this, it's like a double boomerang. Bless me with overwhelming blessing. He is going straight to the source in a sense of seeking breakthroughs from the past.

He says, you know, God, you know, my name is a four-letter word. I'm called a pain morning, noon, and night. But I'm a part of your covenant people, and I'm coming to you. I need a breakthrough, and I'm asking that you bless me with overwhelming blessings.

You know, why is that put in the Bible? For us just to read?

Or perhaps, where where Jabiz is. And we need a breakthrough in our life. And we need to pray to the sovereign God and say, I'm a covenant individual. Just a different covenant.

And I need your intervention, and I need your blessings in my life. Jabiz is basically saying, you know, for all of my years with his name called pain, and everybody looking at me like they're in pain when I'm coming their way, I'm tired of just simply treading water. I need a breakthrough. I want to take the full strokes of the covenant relationship. So God above, bless me. Maybe in a sense, just think about it for a moment. Maybe in a sense, this is also a part of the extenuating part of this blessing, where perhaps Jabiz would say, Lord, a breakthrough the clouds. Had some clouds this morning as we look up in the tropical air. Lord, breakthrough the cloud that's covered my life. Followed me every day.

Just like a dog. Have you ever tried to get rid of a dog that's following you? Go ahead. I won't ask if you've picked up on your rocks.

Try to get rid of the dog. It's just like you can't get rid of that dog. Just follows you, nipping at your heels. Here's a cloud that had been passing over all his life. He says, I want rid of that. I want to not be limited in my experience to serve you. Basically what he's saying is, make my future a contrast to my past. I need a break. I need a full departure. I want something from you, God above. Give me a stake in your covenant, people. See, as a good Hebrew, as a good Israelite, all Israelites are Hebrews, not all Hebrews are Israelites. That's another message, another time. He was directly into the covenant, and he knew that the covenant had been given to his people by the faithfulness of Abraham, and that there were blessings and there were cursings. He wasn't taking this just out of thin air. He was saying, bless me. Give me a stake in your covenant with my people. Know, when you think about it, and you just shift covenants for a moment from the old covenant to the new covenant, it's almost like he was asking for a new birth. You might read John 3 this week, the conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus. Nicodemus had a question, can a man be born again? Can he have a new life? Can he have a new way of being? And Jesus spoke to him about that. He spoke about being born from above. Born anew, whatever you want to call it.

And what J. Biz is saying here wasn't that the story of our baptism, at baptism? Desiring the blessing of acceptance to the Father through Christ. Desiring forgiveness of the past, saying, I don't want to have this name. I don't want these acts. I don't want these sins. I don't want this misinformation. Follow me any longer. Bless me with double blessings as I come to you through Jesus Christ, His life, His death, His resurrection, and accept that covenant.

Can we pray the prayer of J. Biz and move from pain to purpose?

By simply saying, oh, that you would bless me. Point number two. Point number two. As we look here, it says, and enlarge my borders.

At first, you say, wow, this guy's just kind of cocky. He doesn't know when to give up. He's already asked to have a double blessing. Bless me beyond blessings. And now he's going for the whole enchilada. He says, by the way, enlarge my borders. Now, at first, this looks like a kind of a health and wealth, name it and claim it kind of gospel kind of guy. He's just in it for the riches and the goodies. If you looked at it just candidly, you'd say, yeah, looks like it. What does this seemingly over-the-top request mean? Not in our time, but let's always go back to the original meaning. And we'll be talking about that in a couple of weeks in the Bible seminar, because so often we need to read Scripture based upon how it was first experienced by those that were either receiving it, reading it, or living through it. First of all, let's understand that ambition in its right context is not wrong. Sometimes we can use ambition or ambitious as a pejorative. Oh, look at that. Look at that. Just ambitious. But let's put a different... Are you with me? Let's put a different word in there. All right. Put another word. Desire. What does it say in Scripture? In 1 Timothy 3 and verse 1, it says, for Him who desires to be a bishop, that is a good thing. There is a certain spiritual ambition and desire, and it's okay. Now, was Jabez praying to be rich for riches' sake? No? No? Because, well, then that would be displeasing God. In the context of the Hebrew culture, and as it related to the promises of Deuteronomy 28 of the blessings and the cursings, let's understand something. Increased acreage, more land, involved a greater stake in the plan of God for Israel. Now, we don't think that way in our 21st century mind. But more land, expanded acreage, expanded borders meant an even greater stake in the covenant relationship with God. Asking the Lord for more land was asking for a greater share in the covenant with all of its conditions. Being a covenant people, whether in the old days or we that are under the new covenant today, is what? Number one is an opportunity. With opportunity comes what? Responsibility. With responsibility comes what? Accountability. When you think of Israel being a first fruit of the nations, let's understand something, just like first fruits on a plant, they get everything first. They were the first to handle opportunity, responsibility, but God also held them accountable. With covenant also does come judgment. But also comes opportunity. When you think about expanding your borders, when you think of the ability to have wealth, to have property, when properly used to glorify God and to serve others, who comes to mind? One of the great stories of the Bible. Somebody named Boaz, somebody named Ruth, somebody who had property, somebody who had land, somebody who saved the corners of the land. Not for riches, not for himself, but for others. Realizing, as I said earlier, that they understood that the law is about calling us to relationships, not only with God, but with one another. So this is the impetus behind this prayer of asking for more so that he can be a full partaker of the covenant relationship. Now, let's bring it up to our day. Why do we pray for increase? Why do we pray for increase? Let's move from Jabez to ourselves, about ourselves. Why do we ask, perhaps, God to expand our borders? Maybe we haven't prayed that prayer. But Jabez says, Mr. Payne says, it's all right. And God put it in there to say, it's all right to have this conversation. I want to be a part of the new covenant. I want to be a part of your family, Father.

Expand, enlarge my ability, my opportunities. And even as I say that, like we always say, how many sermons have you heard? Be careful what you pray for. Because, again, with opportunity comes what? Comes responsibility. Responsibility comes accountability. But can we pray that prayer? Why do we want to see the kingdom of God come in its fullness? Why do we say amongst ourselves, thy kingdom come? Why do we say, can't wait till the millennium is here? Can we be shareholders? Can we be co-workers? Can we say, God, expand my spirit now, expand my opportunities now in preparation? I want to be a full stakeholder. I don't just... Not in this just to tread water. I want to take every stroke of what you have to offer. So often, friends, we limit ourselves. Susan and I were talking and I forget thinking of the story where we were shooting for one set of numbers and a friend of ours told us, Why stop there? Why not go the full number? Why limit yourself?

A question that we have on this day that represents the millennium, that time of peace. How much do you think of yourself as a shareholder, as a stakeholder, and ask God to enlarge your borders? That's what JBES was all about. Let's go to the next point, please. Let's go back to verse 10.

And that your hand would be with me. That your hand would be with me. Now, that's going to be very, very important, so don't tune out. Because JBES just basically asked if you want to put it this way for the candy store. He says, God, I'm ready. You give it to me. But can you imagine having the candy store all by yourself and what we might become?

That your hand would be with me. In the culture of old, the hand, when I look up here, this is the PowerPoint that's live. The hand was a symbol of strength, control, and skill. We find throughout the Scriptures that God's sovereign intervention and the exercise of his omnipotence are often associated with what is called the hand of the Lord. Keep your hand right there in 1st Corinthians. Keep your hand right here. Join me, if you would, in Exodus 13. Let's take a peek over here in Exodus 13 and verse 14, just to show you where it is in the Bible. So it shall be when your son asks you in time to come saying, what is this? Then you shall say to him, by strength of the hand of the Lord brought us up out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Dropping down to verse 16. And it shall be as a sign on your hand and as the front leads between your eyes, for by strength of hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt.

Now what's going on here? J. Bez so far said, bless me with double blessings.

So far so good. And by the way, expand my borders.

But now we get down to something deeper. He says, let your hand be with me. It is here you might say that J. Bez is moving into the spirit of the matter.

Is it possible that he might be saying, Lord, I'm counting on you to do these things in your time and in your way.

But when you do, when you do bless me and when you do expand my borders, I don't want to be there alone. I don't want to go it alone. I want you to go with me. Your hand, your direction, your guidance, your presence. In fact, I want you to guide each and every step as you do bless me, as you do enlarge my borders with your mighty hand. Because I don't want to feel less and less of your hand in my life as I gain more and more. That's not a good equation. When I'm successful in life, I want to remember that it's by your hand, by your goodness, by your covenant. So really, this third plea, this third request, if you want to jot this down in your notes, is the signal of humility. The two that are out of the blocks, bless me and enlarge my borders, is now brought into bay by the plea, God, you stay with me every step of the way. Interesting. We can go to the Psalms here for a moment. We can see how this works. David, several hundred years later, after Jabez would put down in Psalm 119, this equation that Jabez was seeking in his prayer, Psalm 119. Let's notice verse 173.

Let your hand help me, for I have chosen your precepts. God's not going to help us until we're in his ways, until we're abiding by the covenant. I long for your salvation, O Lord, and your law is my delight. Let my soul live, and it shall praise you, and let your judgments help me. Let your hand help me, because I've chosen your precepts. It is here, as we turn back to 1 Chronicles 4, and again look at verse 9 and center on this thought of letting your hand help me, that you might say that Jabez is requesting that God's hand, God's direction, steadily remind him of the perils of success. Bless me, double blessing, enlarge my borders, but if you're not with me, and if I'm not locked into you, and if you're not guiding me, something's going to happen. So allow your hand to remind me of the perils of success apart from you. He was basically asking God that he would make him aware of what we might call the twin enemies of arrogance and pride, of why the blessings came, of who they were to point to, who they were to glorify, and that it not settle around him. I've often said over the years, being a practitioner and participant in the covenant with you, I've said there's two things that you should never settle, kind of keep around you. It's not good. Praise and mercy. You might think about it for a moment. Praise and mercy. Praise and mercy is not something just to be stagnant, sitting around you. If you're praised, pass it up.

If you've been shown mercy, pass it down. Both praise and mercy have got to have a direct object beside yourself. That, in a sense, is what J.B.E.S. is saying in this prayer, as I am blessed and as my borders are enlarged, God above allowed me to be mindful of who has done this for me and who am I to say thank you to. The testimony of Scripture is that God honors those who honor Him, who seek out and acknowledge His sovereignty, are aware of His presence. I have a question for you. How aware are we of God's presence in our life? Now, many of us here are not, perhaps, wealthy. This does not have to deal with wealth or gigantic expanded borders or lots of income. Oftentimes, when I talk to people, I say, I wish you abundance in all things. I hope that you are prospering in all ways. I know some people just think prospering as far as a bank note. That's the last thing on my mind, because you can take your money to the grave. Write that to you sometimes. When I say, I hope that you are prospering in all ways. That means spiritually. That means emotionally. That means physically. That can mean relationship-wide. That can mean your own tying all of that together. That's prospering. But to recognize that sometimes we can forget what it's about and forget that it's God's hand that has opened up Scripture to us, opened up our hearts. It is God that found us, not we that found Him. And to give honor to where honors do. Allow me to show you how the prayer of Jabez played out at a very specific moment. Join me in Luke 23, verse 46. That's about Jesus Christ. Good. You're right. Luke 23. But it deals with the matter of the hands.

In Luke 23, verse 46.

And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, these are the last moments of His life, notice what He did. He said, Father, into Your hands I commit My Spirit. The last thoughts that were on Jesus Christ's mind were the same thoughts that were in Jabez's prayer. Let Your hand be there. Jesus was saying, Father, above, I recognize Your sovereignty. I recognize Your guidance. And I submit and I surrender myself to it. As indeed You as Father know best.

Interesting as we put all these together and take a look at them. You might say Chronicles is starting to look a little bit more exciting. Let's finish up with the last thought in 1 Chronicles 4, verse 10.

1 Chronicles 4, verse 10.

Jabez, then Acts, ask one more plea, and that You would keep me from evil that I might not cause pain. There's one more thing on my prayer list, O God, that You would keep me from evil that I might not cause pain. Now, this last prayer pill is somewhat associated, closely associated with the preceding request. A lot of these shared out of the amplified Bible might render it a little bit better, make it more understandable. Jabez is saying here, and that You would act to protect me from harm so that it may be sorrowful to me as my name implies.

It's all going back to that name, all going back to his childhood. You know, sometimes I talk to people and I'm counseling with them, and I sometimes teasingly but only say, why is it that we spend the last 60 years of our life getting over the first 20?

I see some nodding out there.

And here it is. He asked this.

Why does he ask this? Why does he state this to God?

Because the hand of God is not only a guiding presence, but it's also a protective power. And he's saying, keep me from evil.

And so he recognizes that God is also a protective power. And again, this statement goes back to Jabez's and Clington's and awareness of the promises of the covenant, as stated in Deuteronomy 28, that God promised his people not only prosperity, but protection from invasion if they would keep his ways. Well, you say, well, I'm not being invaded. Now, we're not talking about physical invasion. We're not talking about today Hittites or Amalekites, but we also are mindful of what Jesus Christ said. He said in that model prayer about keeping us from what? The evil one.

And this was very much on Jabez's mind. Now, such a request would be natural to be protected from invasion or to be protected from evil. But you might say that, let's think about it for a moment. Maybe there's some added meaning here, because he uses the name here that his mother had given him before. Notice what he says, that you would keep me from the evil, but it would not cause pain. Boy, he just can't get rid of that name, just like so much fly paper that is stuck to your hand at any given moment. He wants a break in life.

And so then, perhaps, there is an added meaning. Is it possible that he was not only seeking future protection of either physical invasion, spiritual invasion, property invasion, but that he was seeking a release from a past existence of sorrow and anguish. Perhaps he felt that it was easier to get rid of his name. You can get rid of a name, but you can't get rid of the experience associated with the name. Somebody can call you something.

And he starts saying, sticks and stones will hurt my bones. No, you know how that doesn't work, does it? But the activity and the experience lingers with you. So what we see, what is happening is here, perhaps it was in a sense easier for him to erase that four-letter name than it was the pain associated that was clawing at his heart. Was he seeking release? By saying, help break the chain and the ball of living up to my name. I need release. I need relief. And it does come from you.

J. Bess' prayer is not too far from the New Covenant experience. Join me if you would in Hebrews 9-14.

Speaking of the blood of Christ, the New Covenant.

How much more shall the blood of Christ, through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God? Conscience is different than the activity of sin. Oftentimes, God will forgive our sins, but it is the activity in our mind that we have not let go of because of the experience that lingers and the chemistry melts into our heart and into our brain and all of our activities and we're not able to let go. And what God says is through the New Covenant, I am not only going to forgive the sin, but I am going to heal and I am going to work and I am going to act on removing that evil that is in your conscience so that you can live anew, so that you can be blessed, so that you can enlarge your borders, so that you can have a stake in the kingdom, so that you can be a part of the covenant, so that you can know that you can be protected from the evil one, and so that you can know that you will not experience being again. Now, as we conclude here, notice what it says after this prayer in 1 Chronicles 4 and verse 9, and it says, and so God granted what He requested.

Whish! Tinkerbell time! Did it happen that quickly? No. No, I don't think it did. The Bible is not about fairy tales. It's about living through this life with God as your head.

Probably what happened was that through human interactions, and everyday circumstances of remembering of being a covenant individual, God made a difference in His life, and the pain was taken away. What are the lessons learned, as we lingered for a few moments, in the book of 1 Chronicles? It's very short. Point number one, a small, struggling start does not necessitate a necessitated limited life. How you began does not mean that is how you will wind up. If you doubt that, read the book or read the prayer of Jabez again.

Number two, no measure of success is spiritually safe without seeking God's power and presence. No measure of success, be it spiritual, be it biblical, be it understanding all things, but not having love, be it in your relationships with parents or children, whatever it is, is not successful, is not spiritually safe without seeking God's power and presence.

Number three, to conclude, God not only gives us the future, as He did Jabez, but as we give Him our present, He removes shame. He removes guilt. You know, when I talk to people, and I've been talking to people for 35 years as a minister, they come in, and they're not telling me or talking to me about what happened that morning. They're not telling me about what happened last week, but they're talking to me about things that happened 15, 25, and 30 years ago, and how it made them, what? Feel. And it has become so much of their chemistry, as much as yeast becomes associated with its host subject, that it's hard, humanly, to deal with it. That's all we have to give to God, just like Jabez. As we conclude, I have a question for you, for those of you that are a little bit older. Remember about 35 years ago, Johnny Cash, famous song? Boy Named Sue. How many of you remember that song? Now we know what you're listening to. And remember, the story was, he was looking for, to use his words, that son of a gun that gave me that name. Why would any father call his son Sue? And the story was simply this, that the father gave him that name because he knew that he was going to need it to get through life, to make him the man that he needed to be. Why then did God allow Jabez's mother to give him the name of pain? God allowed it, that his glory and that his intervention might be understood then and now. And that whether we live a life of pain or we live a life of purpose is a choice. Jabez made a choice. Let's understand that choice. Let's emulate it. Let's live it. Let's love it. Let's give it to God.